It does not make sense for you to create a website if you do not visit it. What most people think is that the content they have on their website is what will bring traffic. Though this is true, content alone will not cause traffic to your website; you have to make sure that you have created a great first impression. The best way of doing this is by optimizing the speed of your website.
Most people who click on your website expect it to load within 2 seconds or less. Over 41% of people who try to access your website will abandon it if it takes over 3 seconds to load. That implies that when it comes to your website, speed is of utmost importance. Having a fast WordPress will improve the customer experience and increase Search Engine Optimization. If so, you will attract more clients to your page, thus increasing traffic. In addition, most of the search engines have started penalizing websites that are slow by pushing them down the search engine.
1. Run Speed Tests- 6 ways of speeding up your wordPress website for 2022
The first thing you need to do is to know the speed of your website is to start by running tests. Though you can adjust the speeds of your websites without checking doing speed tests you need to run the test so that you can understand your site better and how it performs. In addition, you will also tell how good the results are after you have completed the improvement steps.
The best part is that you can run the speed tests for free when it comes to your WordPress website. Therefore, when you go online, you will find various tools that you can use to run the test. That being the case, you should start by picking one and then check the speed. An example of the tools you can use to check the speed of your website is Google PageSpeed insights. Since most of the websites are uploaded to Google, this is one of the best tools to help you understand the speed of your website.
- How to use Google PageSpeed insights
- Open the Google PageSpeed Insights
- Put in the URL of your site
- Then click on analyze
It takes a few seconds to get the results. However, when you get the results, you will have an idea of the areas that need improvement. Without the statistics, you might understand the areas that need adjusting and if so, you will not know of the best way to increase speed in your website.
Make Use of Gmetrix for speedingthings up
The other method you can use to help learn about your website’s speed is the GTmetrix. This is an excellent process since it is fun and can be done within a few minutes. To make use of this tool, here is the process you should use.
- Go to GTmetrix
- Type in the URL of your website
- Click on Run Test
- Wait for about 30 seconds for the site to analyze
When you do this, you will get a grade that shows you the speed of your website. Besides checking the speed, the tool will also show you details like your site’s performance and structure. You will also get to see data like core ranking that is found on Google. When you get the score, you can work towards improving the speed.
2. Make use of Web Hosting
You can improve your WordPress is by choosing a performance-optimized WordPress hosting site. The hosting you choose for your website plays a vital role in your website’s speed to load. If you choose a slow hosting site, it will not matter how good of a job you have done at the front-end optimization; the high chances are that your sites will be slow.
When you choose the best hosting sites, they will help you take care of everything. Thus, you will not have to worry about the details that take place on your website. In addition, the right websites will highlight the quality and well-maintained hardware and ensure that your software components are updated regularly. One of the reliable hosting companies you can use is BlueHost. This is a company recommended by WordPress.org since it has been offering the hosting service for many years.
There are also other hosting services that you can use, like the WP Engine, Kinsta, or Flywheel. But if you find these hosting pages being pricey, you can consider using less costly alternatives like A2 Hosting or SiteGround. It is also vital for you to pay attention to the available service locations. Most people do not know that the server’s physical location will significantly impact the loading speed and times. That is why you ought to choose a server near the exact location of your target audience.
Another point to put in mind when selecting the hosting service you need is modern technology. You need to use a hosting site that uses modern technology. For instance, if you are using technologies like HTTP/2, it will give you better performance compared to those who use HTTP performance. In addition, using modern technology will come in handy when you are dealing with more minor requests.
3. Make Use Of Page Caching
Another way you can improve the load time in your website is by using page caching. The use of web caching is where you have the content of your data being stored in people’s browsers. If that is the case and you have a returning visitor, you will find that your data will not need to load again since it is already available in their browsers. Thus, this will lead to you getting increased user satisfaction.
Web cache will help ensure that you have a better conversation. So, it will help in increasing the number of people that visit your website. You can start by searching for the caching settings that will meet your needs. That way, you can use it to help ensure that your sites do not take a long time to load when you have a return guest.
4. What Is A Content Delivery Network (CDN)
The Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a vital part of any modern website application. It is globally distributed and is used to help in offering higher availability, increase performance, and increase the security of your website. In addition, CDN is used to ensure that your website is hosted on several servers throughout the globe. Therefore, because it is used to store the data from your web, the site has an easy time distributing it to your clients; for example, if you have a client trying to get into your website, and they are far from your server, the website might take a long time to load.
If you are hosting on a site like Bluehost, you will find that their TrueSpeed CDN is inside the control panel. All you have to do for you to enjoy the service is to set it up. It is also possible for you to get a 3rd party CDN. Take the time to search through the various options and choose the one that is better suited for your website.
5. Optimize All The Images On Your Website
Images on your website will help improve the customer experience, and they can also attract attention to your site. But they are becoming one of the main issues with speed on your website. If you do not optimize your site, the images will be unnecessarily large and hard to download. If you use numerous images that have not been optimized, the users will have difficulty loading your website.
The good news is that you can have your images optimized. The important thing for you to do is to examine your theme and template to learn the image size you will need. With this information, you can take care of the image before you load it to your website. If you only have a few images that need to be optimized, you can use third-party servers like TinyPNG. To make use of the tool, all you will need is to upload the image and source then it will be automatically optimized.
6. Optimize Your Database
The website database is used to store all your website content. That is, the blog posts, pages, comments, and custom posts. It is also what is used to store your website, theme, and plugins settings. If you are active and update your website regularly, the database is bound to grow over time. However, if you have an extensive database, you will take a long time to load. That is why you need to take the time to optimize your website by removing the unneeded data so that your website can load faster.
It is essential to ensure that your database gets regular maintenance. By doing this, you can be sure that it will help in the overall performance level. The best part is that some commands like SQL can help ensure that your site is optimized when it comes to WordPress. However, you should not start the maintenance without creating a complete backup of your website. That way, in case something goes wrong, you will get all your data again. You need to find the right tool that will help in learning your database and keep it clean in the future.
6 ways of speeding up your wordPress website - My final thoughts
Discussed are some ways that you can help increase WordPress speed without using plugins. But you need to keep in mind that there is no perfect solution that you can use on speed. So if you have issues with speed on your web page, you need to run some tests and retest to balance what you need on your site.
